Discuss the following:
Overview of Compensation and Strategic Perspectives of Compenstation
1. Compensation Definitions and Systems
What is your definition of compensation? How do perspectives on compensation differ? What forms of pay are used in your organization?
2. Compensation Strategies and Organizations
Look at the compensation strategies of Google, Medtronic, and Merrill Lynch (See Exhibit 2.1 in the text).
a. Discuss the companies’ compensation strategies and see whether there is a fit between organization and strategy (See Exhibit 2.1 in the text and check out the companies’ websites, etc.).
b. Are the business conditions, customers served, and employee skills the same for each? If not, how are they different?
c. What are the compensation strategies used by your organization?
3. Internal Alignment and Job Analysis
Job Analysis (Graded)
Job analysis has been considered the cornerstone of human resource management. What is job analysis? Describe the job analysis process. What are some challenges with the job analysis process? How does it support managers making pay decisions?
4. Internal Consistency (Graded)
What is a pay structure? Discuss the factors that influence internal pay structures. Based upon your own experience and research, which ones do you feel are the most important? Why are these the most important? What impact do they have on the design of the internal pay structures?
Job Evaluation
1. Employee Involvement in Job Evaluation
What are the pros and cons of having employees involved in compensation decisions? What forms can employee involvement take? What types of involvement are there in compensation decisions in your organization?
6. Job Evaluation System
Consider several employers in your area, such as a college, hospital, retail store, auto dealership, or governmental agency. What compensable factors do you feel each of these employers would use to evaluate jobs? How would they go about identifying these factors? What factors does your organization use?
Surveying the Market, Determining the Relevant Market
7. Using Market Surveys
What is a market survey? What factors determine the relevant market for a survey? Why is the definition of the relevant market so important?
8. Salary Ranges and Pay Bands
What are the differences between salary ranges or pay grades and pay bands? Why would you use either? What are the pros and cons of using them to achieve internal alignment? How do they help or hinder external competitiveness?
Pay for Performance Plans, Performance Appraisals, and Incentive Plans
9. Pay-for-Performance Approaches
Does your organization have a pay-for-performance system? If so, describe how it works. If your organization does not, discuss the type of plan they do have and whether or not you think they should have a pay-for-performance plan.
10. Rating Performance Effectively
Which performance appraisal formats does your organization use? Given what you learned in the reading for this week, how could it be improved? Of all of the approaches found in the course reading for the week, which would you recommend as the best for your organization to use?
Executive Compensation, Benefits, and Budgets and Administration
11. Executive and Other Special Group Pay
In 2008, Pratt estimated that executives received more than 360 times the pay of the average worker (as cited in Milkovich, Newman, & Gerhart, 2011). What are the components of executive compensation? Why is there concern about executive pay today?
12. Managing Compensation Programs
Compensation programs are managed to assure that the total compensation is aligned with organizational goals and strategies. There are the right number of employees with the correct skill sets, and they are paid at the appropriate level and within a budget that is affordable to the organization. How can labor costs be managed? What tools are available to HR?
Role of Government, Legal Issues, and Unions in Compensation
13. HR’s Legal and Regulatory Environment
Compensation programs are managed within a legal and regulatory environment. What are several laws that influence compensation programs in your organization? What rules and regulations are difficult for management to understand in your organization? What has your organization had to do to meet requirements of new or changed laws and regulations?
14. Union Involvement in Comp Practices
Unions have a significant impact on compensation design. Union contracts and negotiations determine how compensation will function in many companies. How has the role of unions affected wage levels, structure of pay plans, and pay practices like differentials? What are some of the common compensation clauses found in union agreements?